A review of Lonesome Road by Patricia Wentworth
Originally published in 1939, this is the third outing of Wentworth’s amateur sleuth and fiendish knitter, Miss Silver. I have been a bit sniffy about Camberley’s finest in the past, but this was quite a good story. Patricia Wentworth is an excellent storyteller, and the plot was almost believable.
Unlike the previous two Miss Silver books I have read, the sleuth appears from the start and is almost Holmesian, receiving a client in her quarters, knitting needles flying, desperate for her assistance.
Rachel Treherne is convinced that someone is trying to kill her. She has been saddled with an enormous responsibility, her father bequeathing her control over the family’s fortunes and requiring her, at the start of each year, to rewrite her will, ostensibly to keep the family members on their toes. And there are a lot of family members, who spend an inordinate amount of time at the family home, airing their sense of grievance.
Rachel’s elder sister, Mabel Wadlow, is particularly aggrieved that she has not had her share of the family’s money and is forever, with her husband, Ernest, badgering Rachel for money, some of which is to stop son Maurice from going off to Russia and some to set up daughter, Cherry, a frivolous young thing. Cosmo, who has eyes for Rachel, and Ella, a do-gooder extraordinaire, are also on the hunt for cash. Even the cousins to whom Rachel is most attracted and hopes that they marry, Richard and Caroline, are not immune from the family affliction. They all have reason enough to want her demise in order to get their hands on what theu believe to be their rightful inheritance.
The series of mishaps that prompt Rachel to seek assistance seem fairly mundane, anonymous letters, a highly polished step, a curtain that catches on fire, but the sense of danger increases once Miss Silver arrives. Adders are found in Rachel’s bed and then she is pushed over the edge of a coastal path, the lonesome road, only to be saved at the last minute by Gale Brandon.
Brandon, or is it Brent, is the most interesting character in the book. It would not be a Wentworth story if there was not some love interest, and the rough-hewn American is clearly in love with Rachel. There is a backstory though, Rachel’s father and Gale’s father having been in business together. Brent/Brandon senior fell out with Wadlow, just before the latter struck oil and made his fortune. Does Gale have an ulterior motive for getting close to Rachel? Did he push Rachel over the cliff and only rescued her because someone else was approaching?
Wentworth handles this aspect of the story well. There is much about Gale to make the reader suspicious, but equally he seems a nice guy. The ambiguity around his character and his motives is sustained right until the very end of the story.
Despite her unwillingness to believe that any member of her extended family could wish her ill and her devotion to her maid, Miss Silver succeeds in opening Rachel’s eyes as to how the land really lies. By the standards of many of her contemporaries writing murder mysteries, Wentworth’s plot is rather simple and unconvoluted. Sometimes it is pleasurable to read a well-written piece of entertainment without requiring the little grey cells to whirl around in ever decreasing circles. It might even be the perfect antidote to a family Christmas!
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